Dot hack AUREOLE
by StarWulf.EXE
Summary: Something is amiss in The World. The dothackers are dead along with Shugo and his group. Tsukasa has also suffered the same fate. Now...Aura and Zefie are gone too. Who can stop The World from shutting down for good?
1. Prologue

NOTE: I do not own any part of the .hack series.

* * *

**.hack/ AUREOLE**

By StarWulf.EXE

Prologue

"Sir, we're getting major system errors in Delta!"

"Impossible! Shut it down and transfer the data to Dun Loireag."

"We can't! The bug is coming from the church area. We've locked it down but everything else is being overridden by The Black Box."

"What in The World has that Aura gotten herself into?"

- - -

A woman dressed in a flowing white gown staggered as she tried to make it back to her bed. Whatever broken into her sanctum had its intention on killing her. And do far, it was working.

She looked around weakly. "Zefie…my daughter. Where…are you?"

"Mommy." Aura's gaze fell upon a small girl dressed exactly like her sprawled on the ground. Data drizzled steadily from her weak form.

"Zefie!" Aura ran as best she could over to her daughter. She bent down and cradled the girl in her arms. Her data was beyond repair.

"Mommy," Zefie coughed. "I don't want to die."

Tears streamed down from Aura's eyes as her daughter's body faded for a moment before completely disappearing.

The woman collapsed and fell to the ground. Her breathing became shallow as she too started to fade. "Zefie…I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

Aura gently closed her eyes as calm began to spread over her. _Is this death?_ She wondered. And with that, she exhaled for the final time and disappeared from The World.

A few moments later, a large group of System Administrators dashed into the church. They looked around, searching for some sign that Aura was still alive. Sadly, the only sound echoed from the four pendulums swinging in perfect unison with each other.

_Tick-tock, tick-tock…_

The leader of the group waved his hand and opened up a display window.

"How is she?" a voice on the other side of the window asked. The leader shook his head.

"I'm afraid she's gone."

The voice paused for a moment, holding back tears. "Well, nothing we can do now. Lock down the area and shut down the system. We'll reboot when we tell everyone what happened."

The leader saluted. "Yes, sir." He waved his hand once more, closed the window, and then turned back to his troops. "Log out." He commanded.

The System Admins gated out and secured the area.

_Tick-tock, tick-tock…_

- - -

Lios logged himself out and sat down in a sofa in his cubical. _First the dot hackers, then Tsukasa and her group, after that it was Shugo and his friends, now…It's Aura and Zefie. They're all dead along with their characters. It's gotten so out of control that we might have to shut down the game._

_If you are near to the dark_

_I will tell you 'bout the sun_

_You are here, no escape_

_From my visions of the world_

_You will cry all alone_

_but it does not mean a thing to me_

_Knowing the song I will sing_

_Till the darkness comes to sleep_

_Come to me, I will tell_

_'bout the secret of the sun_

_It's in you, not in me_

_But it does not mean a thing to you_

_The sun is in your eyes_

_The sun is in your ears_

_I hope you see the sun_

_someday in the darkness_

_The sun is in your eyes_

_The sun is in your ears_

_But you can't see the sun_

_Ever in the darkness_

_It does not much matter to me_

**Song: Aura**


	2. Dawn of a New Era

**hack/ AUREOLE**

_By StarWulf.EXE_

Chapter 1: Dawn of a New Era

"Amano… Mitsu Amano…Miss Amano, will you please pay attention?"

A girl about fourteen years old quickly lifted her head from her desk. She had long, blonde hair tied into a ponytail that reached down to her waist and bright hazel eyes. Her face turned a vibrant red as she released she fell asleep in class.

"I'm so sorry, Miyashita-sensei!" she said. "It won't happen again."

The teacher scoffed. "For your sake, I hope it doesn't." He turned back to the chalkboard and started writing more equations. Mitsu got out her notebook and started taking notes.

"What's that matter?" her friend whispered. "You never fell asleep in class before."

Mitsu smiled. "I was online all night bidding for _The World – Ultimate Bundle Pack_."

"Well, did you win?"

"Yeah, my parents are gonna pick it up at the post office today. I can't wait to start playing it!"

"Ahem! Miss Amano, do I have to separate you from the rest of the class?"

"No, Miyashita-sensei."

- - -

"Watarai, Yeats, thank you for coming on such short notice. I assume you've been informed on the current situation?"

The two figures nodded. "Yes, we have. How long do we have left?"

Lios frowned. "Only about an hour. The Black Box has been tampered with and deleted. Without Aura, The World won't last long. We've already had to close down some servers."

Watarai looked at the two empty terminals. "I suppose you want us to find the cause?"

"Yes." Lios said firmly. "System Administrator Reki will join you once you log in."

"What about the others? Will they be coming?" Yeats asked.

There was an odd silence in the room. Finally, Lios spoke. "No…They've all been terminated. In The World and…in the real world. Reki, I, and you two are the only ones remaining. "

Watarai tried to hold back a gasp but was unsuccessful. "Even Orca and Balmung? Even Kamui?

"Yes. Now, with that aside, we better get moving."

Yeats and Watarai walked over to the terminals and started up the game. They each put their FMDs, gave a thumbs-up, and logged on.

_LOG ON, ALBIREO_

_LOG ON, HOKUTO_

As soon as the server connection was made, warning lights started to flash on both players' screens. Lios quickly rushed over to the Altimit OS power switch, flipping it off. Both Watarai and Yeats collapsed to the floor.

"Damn, not again!" Lios cursed. He checked their pulses, only to find them dead. Still cursing, he called the medics over to take care of the bodies. Suddenly, he gasped, remembering Reki was still logged in.

"DAMN!" he cursed even louder, picking up his cell phone and dialing Reki's home phone number. It rung a few times before someone picked it up.

"Hello, is Re-"

"Lios, it's you! Something's happened to my brother! He was waiting for someone in The World when he just collapsed!"

"Art, calm down. There's nothing we can do for him now. He's dead."

There was a short silence before Art started to sob, suddenly struck by the realization that his brother wasn't coming back. He hung up, leaving Lios alone on the line. He shut off his phone and looked at his watch. _45 minutes _He thought. _The World doesn't have long. But then…with all the chaos it's been causing lately, maybe it's for the better. _

- - -

Mitsu dashed home from school, not even taking time to say goodbye to her friends. When she arrived home, her parents where waiting outside holding up a Celtic-themed game box with the words, **_THE WORLD, _**written on the side.

"Thank you!" she called out as she swiped the box from her parents.

_30 minutes later…_

Mitsu's computer beeped, signaling The World was fully installed. Putting on her new FMD, she moved her cursor over the game's icon and started it up. Bringing up the character design window, she scrolled through the list of character classes. She quickly picked the Heavy Axe class, eager to start playing. Her character was dressed up in a long, purple dress and a purple tank-top. Around her arms where golden bracers that matched her hair that was purposely designed to match Mitsu's own.

When she came to the name screen, Mitsu sat there for a second, not sure what to name her character. After a minute of careful thinking, she finally deicide on a name.

"I'll call her… Emanation." Mitsu said to no one in particular. She typed in the name and finished her character. "Now let's start playing!"

_LOG ON, EMANATION_

- - -

Lios sat silently in his office, counting down the game's final moments. There was nothing he could do. If he tried to log on, he would suffer the same fate as all of the others. He glanced at his watch, only five seconds to go.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

His computer, which was monitoring the servers, suddenly started flashing. Lios stared at the screen, his mouth hanging open.

_THE WORLD: _

_Servers: _

_OMEGA – Online_

_DELTA – Online_

_THETA – Online_

_SIGMA – Online_

_LAMBDA – Online_

"But…How?" He said to himself. He typed in a few commands and brought up the file in which the Black Box once resided. In its place was a new encrypted program, something called PlatinumEra.aruA.


End file.
